International

<p style="text-align: justify;">GENEVA.—Cuba has assumed the presidency of the UN Disarmament Conference in Geneva with a call to preserve and strengthen the group as a guarantor of world peace. Solutions agreed in a multinational context constitute the only way to approach issues related to disarmament and international security, noted Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Abelardo Moreno in the initial session of the Cuban presidency. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: Glenda Pardo. Buenos Aires, Aug 23 (Prensa Latina) The foreign ministers of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on Wednesday will discuss how to address the current international economic crisis and the creation of an electoral body within the bloc. The meeting of foreign ministers of UNASUR will be held in the framework of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on Latin America and East Asia (Focalae), the Argentine Foreign Ministry announced. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">GENEVA, August 22.—Rodolfo Reyes, Cuba’s representative to the UN Human Rights Council, stated today that the island rejects "any attempt to ignore Syria’s sovereignty." Reyes added, "It is in the hands of the Syrian people and their authorities to determine their will and future." Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">GENEVA (AP) — Nearly a half-century after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba is head of the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament.Cuba succeeded North Korea on Tuesday as chair of the world's main forum against nuclear arms that has been stalemated since it wrote the nuclear test ban treaty in 1996.Cuba's vice-minister of foreign affairs, Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez, told diplomats it's unacceptable that almost 23,000 nuclear weapons still exist, including 7,560 ready to use. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">PL. 21 de Agosto 2011. The 1st World Summit of African Descendants began last Thursday in Honduras with the presence at least of three Central American heads of state and representatives from more than 70 countries. The summit, organized by the United Nations, is being held in La Ceiba, 450 kilometers northwest of the capital. Presidents Mauricio Funes, Alvaro Colom and Daniel Ortega, of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, respectively, will be present, as well as their host, President Porfirio Lobo. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">Cuban journalist Yetel Ricaño, of Radio Victoria, in the eastern province of Las Tunas, took third place in the Latin American Health Journalism Award.The reporter won the award, sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization and the Communication Initiative, for his report “Antimicrobial Resistance: behavior that harms, rushes that condemn”, published on the website of the radio station. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">Associated Press. 2011-08-22 03:12 AM. A Venezuelan government TV channel says President Hugo Chavez is expected to seek approval from lawmakers to return to Cuba for a new round of cancer treatment.The official channel of the National Assembly says on its website that lawmakers on Monday plan to take up Chavez's request to travel to Cuba for his third phase of chemotherapy. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">English.news.cn. 2011-08-21 11:39:21. HAVANA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Experts from several Latin American nations Saturday launched a project to monitor and control dengue in the region. The scheme resulted from "the exchange of experiences among specialists from more than eight American countries," said Guadalupe Guzman Tirado, director of the Dengue Collaborating Centre of the Pan American Health Organization, who was attending a regional dengue seminar here this week. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">Relations between the Netherlands and Cuba should not extend beyond diplomatic contact through embassies, Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal told parliament today.The minister said open dialogue with the Cuban authorities was not justified because Cuban leaders had failed to implement any significant political or economic reforms. Read More

<p style="text-align: justify;">Bogota, Aug. 19 (Prensa Latina) Former Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba left the country after receiving a death threat, sources close to the human rights activist confirmed.Senator Ivan Cepeda, of the opposition Alternative Democratic Pole, said that Cordoba told him by telephone last night that she was leaving the country because the threats had intensified and her life was in immediate danger. Read More